Law firm seeks to halt HP-Compaq vote

Monday 4 March 2002 00:00 BST

An American law firm says it has asked a judge to stop a vote on the proposed $21 billion merger between Hewlett-Packard and Compaq.

HP denied that such a request was ever filed with the court, despite law firm Weiss & Yourman's claim that it made the approach, after certain unspecified information was omitted from documentation sent to shareholders.

About 900,000 shareholders have been sent materials to vote on the deal by March 19, but Weiss & Yourman said in a statement HP must recalculate the worth of the merger and send out new information.